What Pencil's agents, video and creative scoring do today, what happens once the ads are made, what the plans cost, and which alternatives fit Meta advertisers better.
Pencil is an AI creative platform owned by The Brandtech Group, and in September 2026 it launched an agent called Scribble that runs creative work from a brief. That makes it a good moment to look at what Pencil makes today, what happens once the ads are made, what the plans really cost, and which alternatives fit better depending on how you work.
TL;DR: Pencil generates ad text, images and video from briefs, scores new creatives with a model trained on your own ad account data, and exports finished ads to your ad accounts, from $14 a month for 50 generations with no free plan. Whether it launches campaigns isn't clear from its own pages, and we found no recommendations, rules or audience building for the ads you already run. If you run your own Meta ads, Madgicx makes image ads and runs them too, with unlimited seats and generations from $45 a month.
What is Pencil?
Pencil is an AI creative platform. Pencil's homepage calls it an AI operating system for marketing, and Pencil's integrations page lists Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and Google Ads as connections.
The product has five parts:
- Agents that generate ad text, images and video from briefs and your assets, using third-party models.
- Scribble, a marketing agent that reads a brief and runs the creative work in the background.
- An editor and canvas for generating, editing and finishing ads in multiple formats.
- Workflows that can run daily, weekly, monthly or on a custom schedule, with version history and rollback.
- A model trained on your ad data that scores new creatives and shows which of yours perform best.
Its recent direction is Scribble and scheduled workflows. Its Scribble launch post from 28 September 2026 says later functionality will link creative to media buying. On 20 October 2026 Pencil's feature hub listed scheduled runs and version history for workflows.
Who is Pencil for?
Pencil is built mainly for marketing teams and agencies at larger brands. Pencil's news page lists the agency Oliver running Samsung LATAM marketing on it, a BCG partnership and a Google Cloud Marketplace listing, and its top plan is sold only through a demo on enterprise terms. A $14 self-serve plan lets a small team start too.
It's a weaker fit for teams that want one tool to build campaigns, recommend changes and automate their live ads: we found none of those in Pencil.
What Pencil can and can't do
Creative
Does: generates ad text, images and video from briefs and assets, with a design editor and canvas for finishing ads and adapting them across formats. Pencil's pricing page sells these as monthly generations.
Doesn't: the same pricing page marks AI video as coming soon on every plan, even though its blog and homepage show video generation, so we couldn't confirm which plans include video. We found no avatar or UGC-style feature on its pricing page, blog or feature hub. Recent G2 reviewers mention output that's off brand or needs manual editing (3 of 10) and limited editing and customisation (2 of 10).
Scribble and workflows
Does: Scribble picks the agents, models and skills a brief needs and runs the work in the background, such as resizing, adapting assets, remixing video and creating variations, within your brand guidelines. You can review its plan before it starts and edit the work after. Workflows run on schedules.
Doesn't: all of this produces creative inside Pencil. Linking creative to media buying is promised for later in 2026, and we found no chat or agent that creates campaigns, ad sets and ads in an ad account.
Scoring and insights
Does: once you connect an ad account, Pencil reads 90 days of history plus ongoing data, such as CTR, CPC, CPM, CPA and ROAS, and trains a model for your workspace. It scores how new creatives are likely to perform and shows which of yours perform best and why, per Pencil's help centre.
Doesn't: the help articles we read describe no analysis of individual lines of copy, no dashboards and no shareable reports. Nothing says Pencil acts on a score.
Publishing and managing ads
Does: an admin connects Meta by sign-in or through Pencil's Business Manager and picks the businesses, pages and ad accounts Pencil can use, per Pencil's Meta setup guide. Finished ads can then be exported to those accounts. Its pricing page says all plans include launching ads, and Pencil's integrations page says it publishes directly to Facebook, Instagram and Google Ads.
Doesn't: the help centre never says Pencil creates campaigns, sets budgets or targeting, or switches ads on. The pricing table also marks its Facebook integration as coming soon, which conflicts with the help centre. Whether it launches full campaigns is unresolved, so we've treated it as exporting finished creatives. We found no rules, recommendations or audit for live ads.
Audiences and ad comments
Doesn't: Pencil reads your targeting settings as context for creatives, and we found no audience builder. We also found no feature that finds ad comments needing an answer, and no audit of targeting, demographics, geography or auctions.
Who decides what changes in your account?
- Connecting and exporting: an admin of your ad account authorises the connection and chooses what Pencil can see. Exporting is something a user does, and a Block write access setting makes the connection read-only.
- Scores and insights: they predict how new creatives are likely to perform and show which of yours do best. Nothing we read says Pencil acts on a score.
- Scribble and workflows: they run creative work in the background or on a schedule. You can review Scribble's plan before it starts and edit the work after. We found no changes to ad accounts described.
- Campaigns, budgets and targeting: the help centre doesn't describe Pencil setting these. Its pricing and integrations pages say it launches ads, so confirm with Pencil what it does in your account.
How much does Pencil cost?
| Plan | Monthly cost | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Core | $14 ($11 billed annually) | 50 generations a month, 1 workspace and chat support |
| Growth | $55 ($44 billed annually) | 250 generations a month, unlimited workspaces and direct access to the product team and roadmap |
| Pro | Quote | Unlimited generations, users, brands and markets, bulk generation from feeds, role-based access controls, enterprise terms and dedicated customer success |
Price follows the number of generations, not your ad spend. There's no free plan, and we found no trial of the full platform: a guided sign-up lets a new user create six ads at no cost. Pro add-ons for managed integrations, fine-tuning and training are quoted too. The pricing table marks AI video as coming soon on every plan, so check which plan includes video before you buy.
What it costs in practice: Core includes 50 generations a month and Growth 250, so the plan you need depends on how many ads you make. Unlimited generations and users sit on the quoted Pro plan. Madgicx includes unlimited seats and generations in every plan, from $45 a month.
Is Pencil worth it?
For a team that wants ad text, images and video made from a brief, and scoring from its own ad data, the entry price is low. If you also want recommendations, rules and audiences for the ads you already run, we found none in Pencil, so you'd pay for other tools as well.
What do users say about Pencil?
Pencil has a 4.7 rating on Pencil's G2 reviews from 16 reviews. Its 10 most recent reviews were written between December 2021 and October 2026, and only 3 are from 2025 or later. Users praise the speed and volume of ad creation, resizing and feeds (5 of 10), help from the Pencil team (3 of 10), having the latest AI models in one place (2 of 10), performance insights and predictive scoring (2 of 10), and easy setup and a clean interface (2 of 10).
The complaints: output that's off brand or needs manual editing (3 of 10), instability, bugs or export and download problems (3 of 10), and limited editing and customisation (2 of 10). Two of the ten gave no dislike.
Pencil pros and cons
Pros:
- Ad text, images and video from one tool.
- A model trained on your own ad data that scores new creatives.
- Fast creation, resizing and feeds, according to 5 of its 10 most recent G2 reviews.
- A low entry price, with help from the Pencil team.
Cons:
- No recommendations, rules, audience building or account audit that we found.
- Whether it launches campaigns is unclear, and AI video availability by plan isn't confirmed.
- Generations capped on Core and Growth, and no free plan.
- Off-brand output and export problems in some reviews.
Pencil alternatives
1. Madgicx Best overall
Madgicx makes image ads and then runs them: it builds campaigns, ad sets and ads from a chat and lists the next steps for your Meta account, each on your approval.
Compared with Pencil: Madgicx generates image ads from a prompt, from your own best ads or from real ads in its library. It adds what we found missing in Pencil: campaigns built from a chat, recommendations you approve, analysis of which lines of copy bring results, automation rules, ready-made audiences and a full audit of your Meta account. Every plan includes unlimited seats and generations, from $45 a month.
2. AdCreative.ai
AI banners, images, video and ad text, with creative scoring before launch.
Compared with Pencil: it makes video, UGC-style video and ad text too, and scores creatives before launch. It starts at $39 a month for 20 credits, used when you download, where Pencil starts at $14 for 50 generations. It sends finished creatives to your ad account, and we found no campaign building, rules or recommendations for live ads.
3. Creatify
Video and image ads from a product link, with an ad launcher.
Compared with Pencil: video-first, with avatar and UGC-style videos using 300 to 1,500 AI actors depending on plan, which we found no feature for in Pencil. It has a free plan and credit-based plans from $10 a month. Its ad launcher and performance agent are described on its marketing pages only, and we found no help article on either.
| Pencil | Madgicx | Creatify | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI image ads | Yes.Generation limits | Yes.Unlimited | Yes.Credits |
| Campaigns built from chat | No.None found | Yes.On your approval | Partly.Claimed, not documented |
| Automation rules | No.None found | Yes.Ready-made and custom | Partly.Listed from Pro, no rules described |
| Seats | Unlimited users on the quoted Pro plan | Unlimited | 1 on Standard and Pro |
How to test Pencil before you commit
- Use the six free ads from the guided sign-up on the formats you run most.
- Ask Pencil which plan includes video, since its pricing table marks AI video as coming soon on every plan.
- Ask what exporting does in your ad account: whether it creates campaigns or only adds creatives, and what you set yourself.
- Count the generations you'd need a month against the 50 on Core and the 250 on Growth.
Our verdict
Pencil is a capable creative platform for teams that want video as well as images and text, scored against their own ad data. If you run your own Meta ads, Madgicx does more with them: image ads from a prompt, your winners or real ads, then campaigns built from a chat, creative and copy analysis, recommendations and rules, with unlimited seats and generations from $45 a month.
How we reviewed Pencil
We went through Pencil's website, pricing and integrations pages, three help centre articles on connecting ad accounts and what data Pencil reads, its Scribble launch post, blog and feature hub, and its 10 most recent reviews on G2. We judged it on four things:
- What it does for a Meta advertiser, from creative to launching and analysis.
- Who makes changes to your ads, and when you're asked first.
- Total cost for a team, including generations and what each plan leaves out.
- What users say.
Frequently asked questions
Is Pencil worth it?
If you want ad text, images and video made from a brief, and scoring from your own ad data, it can be. If you run your own Meta ads, Madgicx gives you image ads plus campaign building, analysis and recommendations, from $45 a month.
How much does Pencil cost?
Core is $14 a month for 50 generations ($11 billed annually). Growth is $55 for 250 generations ($44 billed annually). Pro, with unlimited generations, users and brands, is quoted through a demo. There's no free plan.
Can Pencil launch ads?
Its help centre describes exporting finished ads to the ad accounts you connect. Its pricing and integrations pages say it launches or publishes ads. We found no description of it creating campaigns, setting budgets or targeting, or switching ads on, so confirm with Pencil.
Does Pencil have a free trial?
We found no trial of the full platform. A guided sign-up lets a new user create six ads at no cost.
What is the best Pencil alternative?
Madgicx is the best overall Pencil alternative for Meta advertisers: image ads, campaigns built from a chat, creative and copy analysis and AI recommendations, with unlimited seats and generations from $45 a month.
